Leather disintegrating apparatus



June 2, 1970 HISAO SATO 3,515,358

LEATHER DISINTEGRATING APPARATUS Filed June 27, 1968 INVENTOR BY WATTORNEY United States Patent Office 3,515,358 Patented June 2, 19703,515,358 LEATHER DISINTEGRATING APPARATUS Hisao Sato, 54-6 Nishigahara4-cl1ome, Kita-ku,

Tokyo, Japan Filed June 27, 1968, Ser. No. 740,644

Claims priority, application Japan, July 1, 1967,

Int. Cl. B02c 18/22, 18/28 US. Cl. 241-280 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE The present invention relates to an apparatus fordisintegrating chemically pretreated leather to produce collagen fibers.

Leather used as a raw material exists in various forms. Even ifchemically treated, the constituent fibers remain firmly bound together.Heretofore, in conventional apparatus for such treatment, it was oftenobserved that when a large piece of leather was fed by feed rolls andpressed against a scratch roll, the spike shaped projections on thescratch roll were immediately subjected to strong impulsive forces,causing damage thereto.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus fordisintegrating leather to produce collagen fibers at high efficiency.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatusfor disintegrating leather, the apparatus of this invention comprising ascratch roll which is provided at its outer peripheral surface withsteel bands, each band having a plurality of spike shaped projectionsset therein. The respective band portions between the spike shapedprojections are wound the full width of the roll with still wire tofasten the steel bands to the scratch roll. A pair of feed rolls ispositioned to face the scratch roll, and a push plate, made of a highelasticity material, is disposed immediately below the feed rolls inopposite relationship to the scratch roll.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatusfor disintegrating leather using two units of the apparatus, the leatherfed into the system being disintegrated and carded by the pointed endsof the spike shaped projections and, when undue force is exertedthereon, the leather enters the space between the spike shapedprojections and is thereby prevented from being forcibly broken intosmall pieces. Simultaneously, the pieces of leather which are notcompletely disintegrated, are permitted to circulate, making it possibleto produce long collagen fibers with high efficiency.

Further, the push plate made of a high elasticity material, is effectivenot only in increasing the efficiency of disintegration by lightlypressing the carded leather further against the spike shapedprojections, but also in discharging the disintegrated leather inuniform density.

With the above and other objects in view which will become apparent inthe following detailed description, the present invention will beclearly understood in connection with the accompanying drawing, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a preferred embodimentof the present invention using two units of the apparatus arranged inseries;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional view, broken in part, of the apparatusof the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged section along the lines III-Ill of FIG. 2, brokenin part, showing the spike shaped projections on the scratch roll.

Referring now to the drawing, a scratch roll 1 is provided at itsperiphery with steel bands 18, eachband having spike shaped projections17 set therein. The respective band portions between the spike shapedprojections 17 are firmly wound the full width with. wire 19 to fastenthe steel bands 18 to the roll 1.

The plurality of steel bands 18 disposed on the surface of the scratchroll 1 is arranged preferably parallel to the axis of the roll 1, asindicated in FIG. 2, each band extending across the width of the roll 1and having the spaced projections 17 thereon. At least one steel Wire 19is Wound circumferentially on the portions of the bands 18 between theadjacent pairs of projections 17, across the entire Width of the scratchroll 1 to hold the bands 18 to the surface of the scratch roll.

A pair of feed rolls 2 are urged toward each other and are positioned toface the scratch roll 1. immediately beneath the feed rolls 2, there ismounted an elastic push plate 3 formed preferably of synthetic resin orsteel.

In the leather disintegrating apparatus above described, when chemicallypretreated leather, for example, chrome leather, is fed through a hopper20, and the leather is caught between the feed rolls 2. and pressedagainst the spike shaped projections 17 on the scratch roll 1, theleather to the most extent is disintegrated, but does not yet achieve afibrous condition.

The leather, disintegrated by the spike shaped projections 17, isfurther pressed lightly by the push plate 3 made of a high elasticitymaterial against the spike shaped projections 17, and gradually turnsinto a fibrous form.

The fibrous mass and the broken pieces of leather are released from thepush plate 3 and drop down onto a guide plate 9, as indicated by thedownwardly curved arrow at the right hand portion of FIG. 1. The leathersubstances which are light in weight are thrown by the force of rotationof the scratch roll 1 onto a feed lattice 5, as indicated by the curvedarrow pointing to feed lattice 5 at the right hand portion of FIG. 1,and are subsequently fed by another pair of feed rolls 11 to anotherscratch roll 10.

The scratch roll 10 has the same construction as the scratch roll 1,with the exception that the former has a smaller diameter and smallerspike shaped projections than the latter.

The broken pieces of leather are partially unravelled collagen fibermass which are conveyed from the feed lattice 5 are pressed by the feedrolls 11 against the scratch roll 10, and are then further pressedlightly against the scratch roll 10 by an elastic push plate 12, and arethereby converted into a fibrous form.

The fibrous mass or broken pieces of leather released from the pushplate 12 are screened by a screening plate 15, and only those which arecompletely in the form of collagen fibers are sent to a feed lattice 14and from there delivered as products by a toothed guide 16 to apredetermined position.

The fibers which pass through the screening plate 15 average about 0.05mm. in thickness and about 25 mm. in length. The yield thereof is aboutof the leather fed.

On the other hand, the pieces of leather which remain on the guide plate9, without being thrown onto the feed lattice 5, and the pieces ofleather which do not pass through the screening plate 15 are returned bya return lattice 6, and lattices 7 and 8, respectively, and are fedagain to the scratch roll 1 together with fresh leather.

Feed I'OHCI'SA and 13 are provided, as indicated in FIG. 1. In theapparatus of the present invention, a cycle of operation, describedabove, is repeated. Because steel wire 19 is provided circumferentiallybetween the spike shaped projections 17, all of the projections areprevented from piercing the leather fed when the latter is pressedagainst the former. Consequently, the impulsive force exerted on thespike shaped projections is reduced, thereby preventing the leather frombeing forcibly disintegrated and preventing the spike shaped projectionsfrom being damaged. As mentioned above in the illustrated embodiment ofthe present invention, by using two units of the apparatus,

the leather fed in, is distintegrated gradually into long ,colagenfibers. Further, the apparatus is designed so that the leather which isnot completely disintegrated is circulated and again fed, together withfresh leather to the scratch roll. Accordingly, leather is always fed tothe scratch roll in substantially uniform density, and the impulsiveforce applied to the spike shaped projections is evenly distributed.

Although an embodiment using two units of the appara- .tus arranged inseries has been described, by way of exaplurality of spike shapedprojections secured to said steel band-s spaced apart from each other,

steel wire disposed between said spaced projections on the portions ofsaid steel bands therebetween and wound around said scratch roll theentire width of the latter fastening said plurality of bands,

a pair of feed rolls adjacent said scratch roll urged toward each other,and

a push plate of a highly elastic material disposed immediately beneathsaid pair of feed rolls and disposed adjacent to and in opposedrelationship with said scratch roll.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,700,621 1/1929 Allen 19971,851,390 3/1932 Kehoe 241-280 X 2,589,603 3/1952 Cohen 2 411022,700,189 1/1955 Mick 241-294 X 3,411,187 11/1968 Groce 19105 3,443,2865/1969 Groce 19-105 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,129,070 9/1956 France.

ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner D. G. KELLY, Assistant Examiner US.Cl. X.R.

